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Best Year Ever

NEW YORK – It was worth the hype. Just two days after its launch, “2012”, the latest version of Year, a life experience interface, has collected over seven billion users, making it the most popular Year in history.

Year has managed to add new users in most of its existing markets, a feat not many analysts thought was going to be possible. Also, while Year has dominated the global marketplace, it hasn’t always been embraced by the Chinese, leaving one of the biggest markets untapped, but “2012” seems to have broken that barrier.

The new Year is built on the same platform as the previous version, the “2011”, but users now can make slight modifications, such as opt for better nutritional and workout habits, a feature that the 2011 also initially had, but that disappeared mysteriously in early February in what is suspected to be an attack by the Anonymous.

The latest version was rolled out globally at midnight, starting somewhat surprisingly from Samoa, a country that has previously been one of the last markets to get Year.

“We wanted to do some last-minute tests and Samoa, as a closed market, was perfect for that,” said a Year spokesperson.

Rumors about an upgrade had been going around almost a year, creating an unprecedented hype around the launch.

In New York, tens of thousands of people lined up at the Times Square to make sure they were the first ones to get their hands on the new Year. Even in Moscow and Stockholm, people defied the sub-zero temperatures and gathered on the streets, a tribute to Year’s new social media element.

“I came here with a few of my friends three days ago, right after Christmas,, to be ready for the launch,” says Alex Shavatovsky, a Magnitogorsk, Russia based IT engineer, who had come to Moscow for the launch.

“I didn’t realize that they actually released Year earlier at home in Magnitogorsk, but I don’t care, it’s been fun, I’ve made a lot of new friends, and we’ve been sharing stuff,” he says, giving the thumbs up.

In just 24 hours, Year was rolled out globally. And the users were mostly happy.

“I love it,” says Sarah Watson, of Syracuse, N.Y. “I just got engaged, and it’s something I’ve been trying to do for a long time, but none of the earlier versions allowed me to do it,” she adds.

Many of the enthusiastic new users said they have been loyal users for a long time.

“I’ve had all their upgrades since 1962, and so far, this seems to be the most stable one,” says Janet MacKenzie, a Portland, Maine baker.

“There’s just something in the way they add new things, and let me tailor things that is very appealing. Now, there have been some real duds, too. After 1984 and 1985, I wasn’t sure if I was going to upgrade to 1986. Especially 1984 was gruesome, very buggy,” she added.

Not even this year’s launch went without complications as millions of users worldwide reported nausea and headaches just hours after they had upgraded their Year.

“I don’t know what happened. At first, everything seemed to be fine, I was a little happier with the new Year, and everybody was dancing and having fun, and then suddenly, somebody pointed out to me that my pants were covered in my own vomit,” says one Wall Street broker who wishes to remain anonymous.

The apparent bug was fixed in a quick upgrade.

“We really believe this is the best Year ever,” said a Year 2012 spokesperson. “We have very high expectations for it, but rest assured, there will be some surprises in the next version, as well.”